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Wednesday, June 10, 2015

So We Are Back In

So I have been meaning to write this post for 3 months now and have yet to do so. Here it goes.

On February 9th we had fulfilled our commitment to the United States Army California National Guard. It was a huge moment for our family. Ryan joined in October 2007, just 5 months after we graduated high school. He was stationed in Missouri for a year, deployed to Afghanistan twice and changed jobs/units multiple times. We spent a solid 6 months prior to our contract ending trying to decided if we would resign, get out completely, switch branches....it is a stressful thing.

On one hand, the additional income doesn't hurt. On the other hand, Ryan is gone for a minimum of 1 weekend a month and with our busy lives and a young baby at home it was something that was really annoying at times.

We made the decision to get out and not renew our contract. Ryan kept doing his research and keeping feelers out. We kept discussing options and possibilities and we kept coming up with the same conclusion. We should get back in.

As of April 10th, Ryan is a member of the United States Army Reserve. We are back in the Army Life!!! :)

Now I should have written this 3 months ago when this happened because of course, now, we are trying to decide again what is best for our family.

Let's back up to April. Ryan is back in but not with the National Guard. He is now in the Reserves and if you don't know the difference, don't feel bad because I didn't either. LOL. Basically the easiest breakdown of the difference is that the National Guard is a state entity and the Reserves are a federal entity. Both are part of the Army and the military as a whole.

So Ryan got back in and has been commuting to Mountain View once a month since April. Mountain View is 151 miles from our house and this new unit he is with always puts him up in a hotel which is awesome. WE I am loving having the commissary privileges back. It's honestly the only way I have ever grocery shopped my entire life.

Our current contract is only until October of this year so we will once again be needing to make decisions as to what we are going to do after that, but as far as I can tell, I'm sure we will be staying in.

3 comments:

Congrats, I didn't realize that the Army Reserve was an everyday thing...I thought it was a once a month commitment. Interesting. I"m sure you'll figure out what to do in October, until then enjoy the commissary, I've never been to one before.